Michael Riconosciuto, PROMIS

[Nomen Nescio]

I read a few old email messages I had and stumbled over some
interesting material relating to NSA, CIA and one Michael
Riconosciuto among other things.

I followed up on the info and did some surfing on the subject and got
quite interested. I also did some searches in my cypherpunk mail
folder and got no hits. Surely this must have been up in the list?
Can someone give me some links please? There were also some talk
about some PROMIS software somewhere and modifications being made to
illegally obtained copies of proprietary software. This software was
then sold by the US gov to be able to spy on Canadian authoritites.
Is this also true?

I found the below text saved here locally, if I'm correctly informed
Mr. Michael Riconosciuto went to jail for this affidavit. Can someone
verify if this really is true. (It sounds bizarre but maybe this can
happen in Amerika?)

I am told that Michael Riconosciuto has been diagnosed with prostate
cancer and many delays in diagnosis and treatment have occurred and
people say it's becaus the US gov wants him dead because he knows too
much.

It's also rumoured that he never received a fair trial and that two
of his lawyers were murdered. Because the US government does not
admit anything about PROMIS he has been relegated as a nut and
serious efforts to isolate him have been going on for more than a
decade.


A friend of mine sent me this info on the case:

> Michael Riconosciuto was asked by Bill Hamilton, the proprietor of
> Promis, to sign an affidavit about his alterations to the
> software. A week before he signed, Michael was threatened. There
> had already been deaths around him and Michael informed his family
> that he was about to be murdered or jailed and that whatever the
> family was going to be told about him, it wasn't true, he was being
> framed for telling the truth. A week after signing the affidavit,
> Michael ended up in jail on fraudulent charges of running a drug
> lab.  


Can someone give me some more info on this?


Thank you 






AFFIDAVIT OF MICHAEL J. RICONOSCIUTO
  		The INSLAW CASE: AFFIDAVIT OF MICHAEL J. RICONOSCIUTO

UNITED STATES BANKRUPTCY COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

In Re:
INSLAW, INC., Debtor.
CASE NO. 85-00070
(Chapter 11)
________________________________
INSLAW, INC., Plaintiff
v.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and the UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE,
Defendants.
CASE NO. 85-00070
Adversary Proceeding
NO. 86-0069

AFFIDAVIT OF MICHAEL J. RICONOSCIUTO

STATE OF WASHINGTON)                                   

I, MICHAEL J. RICONOSCIUTO, being duly sworn, do hereby state as
follows:

1. During the early 1980's, I served as the Director of Research for
a joint venture between the Wackenhut Corporation of Coral Gables,
Florida, and the Cabazon Band of Indians in Indio, California. The
joint venture was located on the Cabazon reservation.

2. The Wackenhut-Cabazon joint venture sought to develop and/or
manufacture certain materials that are used in military and national
security operations, including night vision goggles, machine guns,
fuel-air explosives, and biological and chemical warfare weapons.

EXHIBIT 1

3. The Cabazon Band of Indians are a sovereign nation. The sovereign
immunity that is accorded the Cabazons as a consequence of this fact
made it feasible to pursue on the reservation the development and/or
manufacture of materials whose development or manufacture would be
subject to stringent controls off the reservation. As a minority
group, the Cabazon Indians also provided the Wackenhut Corporation
with an enhanced ability to obtain federal contracts through the 8A
Set Aside Program, and in connection with Government-owned
contractor-operated (GOCO) facilities.

4. The Wackenhut-Cabazon joint venture was intended to support the
needs of a number of foreign governments and forces, including forces
and governments in Central America and the Middle East. The Contras
in Nicaragua represented one of the most important priorities for the
joint venture.

5. The Wackenhut-Cabazon joint venture maintained close liaison with
certain elements of the United States Government, including
representatives of intelligence, military and law enforcement
agencies.

6. Among the frequent visitors to the Wackenhut-Cabazon joint venture
were Peter Videnieks of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington,
D.C., and a close associate of Videnieks by the name of Earl W.
Brian. Brian is a private businessman who lives in Maryland and who
has maintained close business ties with the U.S. intelligence
community for many years.

7. In connection with my work for Wackenhut, I engaged in some
software development and modification work in 1983 and 1984 on the
proprietary PROMIS computer software product. The copy of PROMIS on
which I worked came from the Department of Justice. Earl W. Brian
made it available to me through Wackenhut after acquiring it from
Peter Videnieks, who was then a Department of Justice contracting
official with responsibility for the PROMIS software. I performed the
modifications to PROMIS in Indio, California; Silver Spring,
Maryland; and Miami, Florida.

8. The purpose of the PROMIS software modifications that I made in
1983 and 1984 was to support a plan for the implementation of PROMIS
in law enforcement and intelligence agencies worldwide. Earl W. Brian
was spearheading the plan for this worldwide use of the PROMIS
computer software.

9. Some of the modifications that I made were specifically designed
to facilitate the implementation of PROMIS within two agencies of 
the Government of Canada: the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP)
and the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS). Earl W.
Brian would check with me from time to time to make certain that the
work would be completed in time to satisfy the schedule for the RCMP
and CSIS implementations of PROMIS.

10. The proprietary versions of PROMIS, as modified by me, was, in
fact, implemented in both the RCMP and the CSIS in Canada. It was my
understanding that Earl W. Brian had sold this version of PROMIS to
the Government of Canada.

11. In February 1991, I had a telephone conversation with Peter
Videnieks, then still employed by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Videnieks attempted during this telephone conversation to persuade me
not to cooperate with an independent investigation of the
government's piracy of INSLAW's proprietary PROMIS software being
conducted by the Committee on the Judiciary of the U.S. House of
Representatives.

12. Videnieks stated that I would be rewarded for a decision not to
cooperate with the House Judiciary Committee investigation. Videnieks
forecasted an immediate and favorable resolution of a protracted
child custody dispute being prosecuted against my wife by her former
husband, if I were to decide not to cooperate with the House
Judiciary Committee investigation.

13. Videnieks also outlined specific punishments that I could expect
to receive from the U.S. Department of Justice if I cooperate with
the House Judiciary Committee's investigation.

14. One punishment that Videnieks outlined was the future inclusion
of me and my father in a criminal prosecution of certain business
associates of mine in Orange County, California, in connection with
the operation of a savings and loan institution in Orange County. By
way of underscoring his power to influence such decisions at the U.S.
Department of Justice, Videnieks informed me of the indictment of
these business associates prior to the time when that  indictment was
unsealed and made public.

15. Another punishment that Videnieks threatened against me if I
cooperate with the House Judiciary Commitee [sic] is prosecution by
the U.S. Department of Justice for perjury. Videnieks warned me that
credible witnesses would come forward to contradict any damaging
claims that I made in testimony before the House Judiciary Committee,
and that I would subsequently be prosecuted for perjury by the U.S.
Department of Justice for my testimony before the House Judiciary
Committee.

FURTHER AFFIANT SAYETH NOT.

[Signed]: Michael J. Riconosciuto

Signed and sworn to before me this 21st day of March, 1991.
John M. Rosellini
Notary Public
My Commission Expires: Sept 19, 1993